I was wondering if anyone could please give me some advice as to how to design a 2000 point army to make it as cost effective as possible (i.e. if I only have X dollars to spend, what would you get but for it still to be competitive). Should I base it on buying the warhost? Thanks in advance.

To keep it cheap yet competitive you really need to be looking at a small evasive all cavalry force. However if you have never played the game before, this would be a brutal introduction and probably ill advised as it can be very fragile.

How to envision your army to look? Big blocks of troops, small units, a mix, as this will help give you a little more guidance.

With the changes in the End Time series recently the army options have expanded dramatically, across all three elven armies.

There is a new edition of WHFB due out in May, that may or may not change the meta of the game dramatically. This may be a good entry point for you, as everyone will be learning the new edition.

What Amboadine said is a very strong point. The general rules are going to be revised completely, and the 'rumours' say that big changes are coming, including several models simply not "being there" in the new rule set. However the DE army book is rather "young" at little over a year, so I have this trust that our units will make it though

The warhost is generally not "competitive", at least in my opinion and based on my experiences and playstyle - which is again ehavily influenced by the local meta it would help us in advising you, if you say how much you know of models, units and stats... Do you for example know what armor saves, ward saves and T / W means, and so on

The power units in our army book is, listed by their (in my personal opinion) power:

These five/six choices alone can build you a power army to be reckoned with. It will be difficult to play at first since the movement phase is both the most difficult but also the most critical phase, but once learned, the rewards will be great.

Optional support choices include shades and harpies.

Example rough 2000 point list if I where to build an ultra competitive balls to the wall list:

Pegasus dreadlord with various good magic items, popular loadouts are cloak of twilight + dawnstone OR ogre blade, other tricksters shard and talisman of preservation. http://www.games-workshop.com/en-DK/Bre ... sus-Knight <-- buy this guy and a cold one knight bit from a bit seller or ebay. You can buy dark pegasus wings on the DE section if you want them to look more badass, but the standard bret wings work just fine.

Lvl 4 on steed (she may be abit expensive but has so much more mileage than a lvl 4 on foot!). Buy the lvl 4 from the dragon kit as bits + a dark steed from the chariot kit as bits if you can. Alternatively buy the mounted high elf mage and say he's a turncoat

Pegaus master BSB. Again, same procedure as for the dreadlord. Try to get a hold of a pretty flag and paint it super well, the battle standard should be the pride of your army popular loadouts are: talisman of preservation + charmed shield (in conjuction with a cloak lord) or cloak of twilight (in conjunction with the ToP + OTS lord).

Fill your core with dark rider units. Units of 5 and maybe a single unit of 10 in which your sorceress could go in an emergency. Dark riders are so much better than all other core units that you simply cannot compare. However, if you're going to play in a comped environment, many restriction sets limit dark riders for this very reason if so, add smaller units of darkshards or witch elves. In general, dont bother with standard warriors in this edition!

For your special choices, its a no brainer. 4 bolt throwers, go go.

For your rare, look to one unit of 10 warlocks (with a mounted lvl 4) or two units of 5 (with a lvl 4 on foot). Popular lore choices for your lvl 4 is death (since warlocks come with built in magic missiles) or dark (for many many magic missiles).

This is a reasonably cost efficient starter list. I cant put a precise price on it but check the units out and see if you can manage it

Best to hang on till then before making any big investments. Powerful choices now like Pegasus riders could end up being superceded by other troop types in the new version.

In the meantime, there are lots of battle reports and modelling examples to inspire, and you should be safe with a few boxes of up to date miniatures like Witch Elves, Spears/Rxb, Warlocks/Dark Riders and Cold One Knights.

However, these scores should be taken with a pinch of salt. The maximum points per model is easier to achieve for one than the other. Take, for example, the plastic Sorceress who can function as supreme sorceress just as easily and double or triple her point value. The warhost scores "low" in minimal setup (bleakswords, Corsairs, COC, COKs and not using the fleetmaster) but can easily increase its point value by making the models Darkshards, Corsairs with command, COC, COK with command and using the fleetmaster as a Master/Dreadlord on foot. The Cauldron of Blood can go many ways. The most extreme situation is to build it as a Cauldron of Blood, a Hellebron on foot and a Bloodwrack Medusa. Combined, that's a good 715 points before upgrades, but it's not likely you'll use all three in a single list.

Another note is that points/euro doesn't necessarily reflect how effective the unit or combination of units is in the game. A Sorceress or Dreadlord on dragon may give good value in terms of cost to points in the game but they require a somewhat tailored list. Likewise Cold One Knights may prove cheap but they'll put demands on the rest of your army.

An important question is how competitive and effective you want the list to be. If you play in a fairly soft environment, then you can let the pennies rule some choices. If you need to ace the game, you may have to get creative with options and conversions if you want the biggest bang for your buck.

_________________I love me a bowl of numbers to crunch for breakfast. If you need anything theoryhammered, I gladly take requests.

"I move unseen. I hide in light and shadow. I move faster than a bird. No plate of armour ever stopped me. I strike recruits and veterans with equal ease. And all shiver at my coldest of whispers."- The stiff breeze

No-one (who can say) really knows what 9th will bring - just a couple of months ago people expected just a general update, now there's rumour of round bases and skirmishing only. I'd be surprised by the latter, but I'm just a guy on the street.

My collection is large and messy (20 years worth of Dark Elves ), but If I were starting again I would pick up a few varied models to build and play around with and see what I enjoyed. I think I'd likely start with the following: 1 x Bleakswords, 1 x Corsairs, 1 x Warlocks, 1 x Glade Riders, 1 x Reaper BT. That gives you 5 x Dark Riders (converted Glade Guard using spare Dark Rider (from the Warlocks box) and Dreadspears (from the Bleakswords box) bits), 10 x Corsair (I prefer 2 x HW, but if you want to go all shooty there's probably a place for HB's), 10 x Dark Shards, 5 x Warlocks and a Master and / or Sorc on Dark Steed kit bash. That's just over £90 RRP (although note that the Reaper is out of stock on the GW site, which normally signals either a removal or a model change), which at a standard discount at an online store means all of that plus the army book for around £100 (and you'll probably want a Hydra next ).

_________________Still Serving SlaaneshOwner of one too many armies...

Who is online

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot post attachments in this forum